Introduction

So, you may well ask, what am I, with nothing to do with showbusiness or the recorded music industry doing writing this? I followed her career from the very first Parlophone recording, probably first heard on Radio Luxembourg, the then favourite medium for plugging new records. I first met her signing autographs at the 1956 (?) Radio Show and was struck by her sincere manner and that she seemed well out of her depth and miles from home. Was it the action of a star struck (late) teenager or just barefaced cheek that led me the following Summer, having learned (via the music press) she had moved to live in London and passing through Warrington on the way home from a cycling holiday in Ireland to simply knock on her mother's door and ask for her phone number? (I found the address in the phone book, it couldn't happen today). Sheer cheek, it may have been, but London, like any big city, can be a lonely place for a newcomer, and with few friends outside immediate business acquaintances, a welcome from someone with no obvious ulterior motive (there were plenty who did) was appreciated. I count myself as having been a good enough friend for a couple of years to put this piece together.

In answer to the question "did I fancy the lass?". Yes! of course I did, along with a few hundred others. I was close enough to do something about it but never did. I was pragmatic enough even then to realise there was no future for me in her life.